River Downs, originally scheduled to begin its meet on April 29, will now open Friday, May 13, for live racing.

The Cincinnati track has been closed because of floodwater from the Ohio River, which runs approximately 80 yards from the track. Although the water from the river has receded, continuing rain has left the racing surface waterlogged.

With sunshine and low humidity in the area on Thursday and predicted for Friday, management felt that the track would be ready by Tuesday for training and then opening day on Friday.

On a rainy afternoon at Keeneland in September 2009, William “Jinks” Fires found the horse he’d been looking for the last 40 years. The yearling by Arch was the kind of individual that made one think Kentucky Derby. Now the race is upon Fires and Archarcharch.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Thursday dawned cold and for a change bright, with the sun shining over the Twin Spires and on the 20 prospective Kentucky Derby starters, all of whom visited the track at one time or another during the course of the morning.

Besides the standard array of vertical and horizontal wagers, the Kentucky Derby Day menu at Churchill Downs will offer pretty much anything a horseplayer wants. The Derby (race 11) ends every multi-race wager possible: double, pick three, pick four, pick five, pick six.

Despite sustaining a broken nose when he was stepped on by his mount Smoke’n Al on Wednesday, jockey Robby Albarado is expected to keep his engagement aboard Animal Kingdom in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby as well as the remainder of his mounts on the card.

Albarado also sustained a gash over his right eye that needed to be stitched up, according to his agent, Lenny Pike. Albarado did take off his mounts on Thursday, but Pike was hopeful he could ride his nine mounts on Friday – which included Bouquet Booth in the $1 million Kentucky Oaks.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. –The last time Larry Collmus was at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby he sat in a metal chair on the back row of the apron watching the horse he bet on – Spend a Buck – go gate to wire under Angel Cordero Jr. at odds of 4-1 in 1985.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The Fort Marcy Stakes and Beaugay, a pair of Grade 3, $100,000 races at 1 1/16 miles that serve as the traditional starting points for the New York turf racing season, will each be run for the 34th time Saturday.

The Fort Marcy, which is scheduled for the Widener turf, attracted six turf-meant runners, with Sal the Barber’s win in the 2009 running of the Grade 3 Calder Derby the only graded stakes score among them.

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